JAPAN COAST GUARD HELICOPTER SEARCHES BEYOND THE JAGGED ROCKS OF YONA POINT FOR THREE U.S. AIRMAN WHO WERE WASHED OUT TO SEA

Six U.S. Air Force Reservists on a two-week visit to Okinawa --- and apparently not familiar with the dangers of Okinawa's coastline during a Typhoon --- saw the 4-to-5-meter waves coming in across the East China Sea, and decided to walk along an old-and-eroding section of former Highway 58 that follows the coast out to YONA POINT.

This abandoned stretch of highway narrows to only a few feet wide in some places, with entire sections of the former road surface ripped away by the ravages of endless storms.

Unbeknownst to them, they were putting their lives in danger in order to get some spectacular photos of the mountainous typhoon waves.

THE LOCATION

YONA POINT : 26°46'3.06"N 128°11'54.47"E

Just three miles away (as the crow flies) from the OKUMA REST CENTER, this dangerous stretch of former Highway 58 between HENTONA and YONA VILLAGE was abandoned in 1972 after a new bypass tunnel opened that year.

Even that tunnel proved inadequate, as it did not bypass a long enough stretch of the storm-tossed coast.

In the early 1990s, an even longer tunnel was opened, which finally proved sufficient to escape the dangers of this cape.

It was at this extremely treacherous outcropping of rocky headland that the six reservists decided to go to capture some fantastic photos of the roiling sea.

THE DEADLY DECEPTION

The old roadbed on the south side of the point is protected to some degree by a shallow coral reef. Here, the monster waves are broken and diffused about 100 yards off shore, presenting an air of safety to observers at the parking area and picnic overlook situated 300 yards to the south.

Those not familiar with the spot could easily assume that this same natural, wave-breaking reef would extend around the point, and follow the coastline as it does in so many other places on Okinawa.

However, the reef ends here. On the north side of the point (immediately where the old roadbed takes a sharp turn after passing through a cut in the rock), the deep sea comes right up to the road. Here, the massive waves, with unabated force, unleash their destructive power against the road, and the rocky cliff against which it was built.

The Airmen, looking from the south, saw safety in the reef, extrapolated that in their imagination to where they couldn't see, and thus tempted, walked around the bend to meet their doom.

WALKING INTO THE GRIP OF THE SEA

Having parked their car(s), then making their way from the south by walking along the eroded remains of old Highway 58 (built in the 1920s), they got around the far point and onto an old abandoned bridge whose collapsed abutments and eroding concrete arch crosses a dangerous fissure in the face of the cliff.

It was here, as the currents changed, and the incoming tide brought massive waves that over-swept the old road, that four of the six men were hit with a massive incoming wave, washed off the old bridge, and thrown into the grip of the foaming whirlpools and razor-sharp rocks.

By some miraculous fortune, one of them was caught in a hold amongst the jagged rocks, and lunged out for his life in a pause between the thundering fury of the pile driving waves.

With his leg ripped open, he made it back along the road bed to join the two who had escaped the waves and already gone for help.

HOW DID OLD SOBA KNOW ABOUT THIS, AND GET HERE BEFORE THE MEDIA OR RESCUE HELICOPTERS SHOWED UP ?

I had no idea.

In a serendipitous fluke of coincidental timing, I was on my way home from shooting waterfalls and pools along a Jungle River, and --- from an always safe distance --- capturing images of Typhoon Waves on the other side of the Island.

Driving down Route 2 while nursing a bloody wound given to me by a large, angry GREEN SNAKE --- which, though non-poisonous, has a nice set of razor-sharp teeth that opened up the skin on my arm --- I was thinking over the events of the day.

I suppose it was my fault for having used my bare hands to rip the bright green snake right off his perch on a cliff face, but....hey, I needed to hold him up to my camera for some close-ups of his beady eyes.

Anyway, at the bottom of Route 2 where it dumps onto Highway 58, I saw some local folks gathered at the sea wall of YONA VILLAGE, and saw the humongous waves coming in.

Hopping out of my car, I started taking photos.

It was shortly after that that an Airman showed up looking for a safe northern approach to the dangerous Yona Point.

I walked with him down the old, closed stretch of coastal highway, as he filled me in on what had happened.

I just happened to have a good pair of binoculars with me, which I put into his hands to aid in his search of the horribly pounding sea.

There was nothing else I could do.

THE PHOTOS

These photos begin before the Search & Rescue Helicopters of the JAPAN COAST GUARD and the U.S. MILITARY arrived on the scene... show their arrival and spotting of a lifeless body that they mark with a dropped flare... the entry into the water by Coast Guard member to secure the body.... and the beginnings of nightfall and darkness as the search for the remaining two of the original four men continues on.

Condolences to the good Airman I met, who had to watch the loss of his fellow Airmen, and to the families and friends of those lost at sea.

R.I.P.

www.stripes.com/search-on-hold-2-airmen-remain-missing-at...

www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/06/1-us-airman-dead-2-missi...

www.cbsnews.com/news/one-us-airman-killed-two-missing-aft...

news.yahoo.com/airmen-swept-sea-typhoon-identified-013203...

Japanese Typhoon No.18, Typhoon Phanfone

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Taken on: October 5, 2014

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Sets appears in: • HIGHWAY 58 • OKINAWA ! more » • MILITARY RELATED -- ON & OFF BASE, PRO & CON, PROTESTS & LOVE • SEA ROCKS « less

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